Guided Design
I had to chuckle when I read the Wilson article. I participated in this exercises in an undergraduate business class. This was the early 1990’s.
A few years later I entered the workforce and attended a “mission statement workshop” where we participated in guided design.
I can’t describe the difference. I found the survival exercise frustrating. There was no explanation of the guided design process. We were thrown in to groups during one class period. The goal in this exercise was not what Trivette promotes that “the goal of guided design is not to get the correct answer.” Instead it was clear to all of us that there was indeed a correct answer.
In contrast, mission statement workshop incorporated many of the components that Trivette stressed. The problem was certainly realistic. We were charged with coming back from the workshop with a draft mission statement. While Casada and DeShazer think that the role of the instructor should be one of a showman, I disagree. The person who guided us through the process at the workshop provided feedback and encouragement throughout. She did not cross the line into salesperson.
I don’t think younger students would enjoy all of the aspects of guided design. I think you could modify the model to be less stringent in its steps if you were going to use this in K-12.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for pointing out the "correct answer" point - it's one I wrote about as well. I think that the GD model can be misapplied to a learning environment, deviating from the original intent of the theory - which is about the process and not the outcome. Same thing happened to me with the survival group activity.
ReplyDeleteIt did not occur to me that they were looking for a correct answer in the survival activity. Not having done this myself, I thought the whole point was the process and not the outcome. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth C
Rachel, I think you touched upon an important factor that influences outcomes of guided design experiences, teacher expertise. Facilitating productive group interactions, asking good questions, and modeling complex thinking processes are daunting tasks. Inexperienced teachers probably do have a tendency to push students toward one "right" answer. I actually bought a book to learn how to ask better questions, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
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